Yesterday morning I was late to work.  I usually try to walk in the front doors around 8:00.  On the few occasions when I overachieve, I get in around 7:45.  If the day started slow, it will be closer to 8:15.  Yesterday, however, was a 9:30 morning.  Normally, I would be a bit peeved by this, but yesterday, I couldn’t have been happier.

At 8:30, Butterfly and I arrived for Donuts with Dad at her preschool.  We walked into the large room and saw numerous other dads scattered between the tables that had been set-up.  First, we chatted with one of Butterfly’s friends from church and then we found her teacher and our assigned seats.  Butterfly proudly displayed the crafts that she had made for me and instructed me to wear my name tag.  I didn’t have my name, but referred to me as her father.  (I’m OK with that.)

The excitement was too much to bear and Butterfly declared that we should go get our donuts.  We both selected the standard glazed and got our small cups of orange juice.  As we ate, I got to speak with a few of the other fathers from her class in between Butterfly’s stories about class and crafts.  When we finished our donuts, we still had a few minutes before her class began.  Butterfly came up with a wonderful way to fill the time.  “Hey, I know.  We could get another donut!”  My mind threw up several stop signs:  I’m watching what I eat, she doesn’t need too much sugar…  Five minutes later she was overjoyed to be sharing a donut with her father, and I was very happy to be sharing one with her.

We cleaned up, gathered my gifts that she worked on for the past several weeks, and headed to her classroom.  I was fortunate enough to find Kelley walking in with Ladybug.  Ladybug ran to me and gave me a hug and let me excort her to her classroom.  I say “escort” because she wouldn’t let me hold her.  She demanded to pull her little school bag and walk in all by herself.  As I left her room, I asked for a kiss and she puckered her little lips.

The clock said 9:00…time for them to spread their wings.  More difficult for me, though, was that it was time for me to let them. Most mornings, I drive to work formulating a plan on how to attack the workload before me, listening to the news, checking my incoming messages, and jsut doing stuff to be efficient with my time.  Yesterday, I drove in the silence, wishing that I wouldn’t have to taint the purity of the morning with the dirtiness of the day.